Consumer sovereignty and the Greek economic crisis: (Dis)continuity of consumer sovereignty repertoires

Abstract

In this paper, I attempt to reformulate the (consumer) action and discourse, as these arise from the discourse of visitors at the biggest shopping mall in Athens. The qualitative data are derived from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with visitors at The Mall Athens. The cultural-consumer repertoires of the participants, that is, their understanding, evaluation, and justification schemes of their consumer practices and desires, are analyzed from a constructionist point of view. The context of the ten-year-long Greek economic crisis is a promising field for the investigation of the concept, meaning, experience, and performance of consumer sovereignty. Hence, the very concept of consumer sovereignty is empirically “tested,” including its different conceptualizations and performances. In particular, two repertoires of consumer sovereignty arise, namely, the power of free hedonistic choice and the morose rational prudence, while the crisis critically mediates and raises issues of (dis)continuity for these two repertoires.